On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.19 · 1.20–1.37 · 1.38–1.54 · 1.55–1.68 · 1.69–2.14 · 2.15–2.32 · 2.33–2.48 · 2.49–3.9 · 3.10–3.23

1. 1.1Augustine explains to Marcellinus why, despite heavy cares, he has set aside other work to answer his questions.
2. 1.2Against those who say Adam would have died even without sin, Augustine argues from Genesis 3:19 and 2 Corinthians 5 that death came as a penalty and that sinless Adam would have been changed without dying.
3. 1.3Adam in his obedience could have lived long without aging and passed to immortality without death, as Enoch and Elijah have been preserved.
4. 1.4Romans 8:10–11 shows that the body is dead because of sin, not because of its earthly frailty.
5. 1.5Augustine distinguishes a body that is mortal (able to die) from one that is dead (bound to die because of sin), and shows why Paul promises life to “mortal” bodies.
6. 1.6Augustine refutes the reading of Romans 8:10 as “dead in order not to sin,” showing that Paul assigns bodily death to the merit of sin and life to the merit of righteousness.
7. 1.7Romans 8:10–13 teaches that the believer's spirit already lives by grace while the body, still bearing sin's penalty, will later be raised to life.
8. 1.81 Corinthians 15:21–22 speaks of bodily death coming through Adam, which confirms the sense of Romans 5:12.
9. 1.9Augustine reports the view that sin passed from Adam by imitation, not propagation, and argues that Paul would then have named the devil, not Adam, as its source.
10. 1.10Adam is not only an example of sin but its origin, passing it to his descendants through carnal concupiscence, just as Christ gives inward grace even to infants who cannot imitate him.
11. 1.11The words “in whom all sinned” show a single sin shared by all in Adam, just as believers are justified “in Christ,” not in any saint they imitate.
12. 1.12“Until the law sin was in the world” means that neither natural nor written law could remove sin; sin was not recognized as sin, though God still held it as sin.
13. 1.13Death reigned even over those who had not sinned personally as Adam did, because they drew original sin from him; Augustine notes a Latin variant of Romans 5:14 and prefers the Greek reading.
14. 1.14The gift through Christ exceeds Adam's offense not in the number reached but in that it forgives personal sins as well as original sin.
15. 1.15Paul's contrast between judgment “from one offense” and grace “from many offenses” shows that original sin alone suffices for condemnation, excluding unbaptized infants from the kingdom and from eternal life.
16. 1.16From Adam we inherit only original sin, but through Christ we receive forgiveness of both original and personal sins.
17. 1.17Death reigned through Adam's one offense because all were bound in him; if imitation were meant, the devil, not Adam, would be named; those who pass to Christ receive grace for all their sins and will reign forever.
18. 1.18Paul speaks of Christ's “justification,” which Christ alone gives and which cannot be imitated, so that Adam's offense likewise passes by propagation, not imitation.
19. 1.19If imitation were Paul's point, Abel or Judas would be paired with Adam; rather, Adam gives sin by carnal generation to all men, as Christ gives righteousness by spiritual regeneration to all the righteous.
20. 1.20Sins added by one's own will do not come from Adam, but all righteousness comes through Christ, who forgives both original and voluntary sins.
21. 1.21Unbaptized infants will suffer the mildest condemnation of all; Adam's disobedience brought shameful desire and mortality, so all generated in the flesh need spiritual regeneration in baptism.
22. 1.22Augustine dismisses as absurd the claim that infants are baptized for sins committed in their own brief lives.
23. 1.23Against those who say infants are baptized only to enter the kingdom, Augustine argues that without regeneration no one has eternal salvation, since Christ died for the ungodly and came as physician to the sick.
24. 1.24Infants cannot be baptized as neither sinners nor righteous, since Christ came to call sinners; baptism heals in them the sickness of original sin.
25. 1.25Infants are called penitents and faithful through the words of their sponsors; baptism profits them if they die young, but not if they grow up and do not believe.
26. 1.26Against those who grant unbaptized infants eternal life outside the kingdom, Augustine cites John 6:53: without eating Christ's flesh and drinking his blood, which only the baptized receive, there is no life.
27. 1.27John 6:53 applies to infants too, since Christ's flesh was given for the life of the world, which includes all who are born.
28. 1.28Since the church counts baptized infants among believers, unbaptized infants fall among those who do not believe the Son, on whom God's wrath remains, which implies original sin.
29. 1.29Only grace frees from God's wrath; why it is given to one and not another is hidden but never unjust, as Paul's cry in Romans 11:33 shows.
30. 1.30Augustine turns the charge of injustice back on his opponents: on their own view, too, God's differing treatment of equal infants can only be met with Paul's cry at the depth of his judgments.
31. 1.31The theory that souls sinned in a prior heavenly life does not explain why a virtuous person may never hear the gospel while a wicked one hears, believes, and is saved.
32. 1.32Augustine tells of a simple-minded Christian who defended Christ's name against clever blasphemers, a case the theory of souls' former lives cannot explain.
33. 1.33Augustine sums up: Scripture teaches that all are under sin and that only Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of infants too, frees from it, so no salvation is to be promised to infants apart from baptism.
34. 1.34The African custom of calling baptism “salvation” and the Eucharist “life” reflects apostolic tradition that neither can be had without these sacraments, which in infants loose only original guilt.
35. 1.35Whoever does not believe in Christ remains in darkness; so infants not brought into the number of believers by baptism remain in it.
36. 1.36Against the view that newborns are enlightened by the Word at birth, Augustine points out that they are not admitted to the kingdom without baptism and resist baptism with tears.
37. 1.37John 1:9 means that no one is enlightened inwardly except by God, the true light, whatever teacher speaks outwardly.
38. 1.38Augustine offers several readings of “coming into this world” in John 1:9, and concludes that even a created rational soul remains in darkness unless it believes, which infants do through the church's sacrament.
39. 1.39Christ came to give life, salvation, freedom, redemption, and light to sinners; since the church baptizes infants, they too need these benefits, which can only be because of original sin.
40. 1.40Augustine begins a collection of Gospel texts showing that Christ came to save the lost and that without baptism infants do not belong to his sheep and will perish.
41. 1.41Texts from 1 Peter on regeneration, light, Christ's suffering for sinners, and saving baptism show that infants need adoption into God's people.
42. 1.42Texts from 1 John show that without the Son, whom infants have only through baptism, they have no life, and that Christ came to undo the devil's works in them too.
43. 1.43Texts from Romans on justification by grace, Christ's death for the ungodly, the struggle of Romans 7, and the likeness of sinful flesh show that all are born needing grace.
44. 1.44Texts from 1 and 2 Corinthians show that Christ died for all, who were therefore dead; if infants are brought to baptism, they are among those whose offenses need forgiving.
45. 1.45Texts from Galatians: Christ gave himself for our sins, and Scripture has shut up all under sin so that the promise comes by faith.
46. 1.46Texts from Ephesians: all were by nature children of wrath, saved by grace, reconciled through the cross, and sealed by the Spirit for redemption.
47. 1.47Texts from Colossians: God rescued us from darkness, and in baptism, the circumcision of Christ, forgave all offenses and cancelled the record against us.
48. 1.48Texts from 1 and 2 Timothy: Christ came to save sinners, is the one mediator who gave himself for all, and saves by grace, not works.
49. 1.49Texts from Titus: Christ gave himself to redeem us, and God saved us by the washing of regeneration, not by our works.
50. 1.50Though some doubt Hebrews, Augustine accepts it with the Eastern churches and cites its texts on Christ's purification of sins, his priesthood, and his once-for-all sacrifice.
51. 1.51Revelation 5:9 praises Christ for redeeming people from every nation by his blood.
52. 1.52Texts from Acts: Jesus is the author of life, the only name for salvation, and the one through whom forgiveness of sins is given.
53. 1.53Augustine explains that the Old Testament hides under earthly promises what the New reveals, as Christ himself taught of the Law, Prophets, and Psalms.
54. 1.54Old Testament witnesses (Psalm 16, Psalm 119, Isaiah 53 and 61) show that all have gone astray and are healed only by Christ, who bore the sins of many.
55. 1.55There is no middle place: an unbaptized infant is not with Christ and so is against him, which can only be because of original sin; Christ saves all who are saved, as Adam condemns all who are born.
56. 1.56The whole church holds that all are separated from God by sin and reconciled only through Christ, the son of the virgin who conceived without lust.
57. 1.57The good of marriage is the lawful use of concupiscence for procreation, while concupiscence itself is the evil with which all are born; only Christ, conceived without it, was born without sin.
58. 1.58Against the claim that John 3:5 excludes unbaptized infants only from the kingdom but not from eternal life, Augustine argues that rebirth implies renewal from the oldness of sin.
59. 1.59Augustine quotes John 3:1–21, the conversation with Nicodemus, in full.
60. 1.60Christ's answer to Nicodemus, that only he who descended ascends, means that spiritual regeneration makes believers members of Christ, so that head and body ascend as one Christ, just as God and man are one person in him.
61. 1.61The bronze serpent signifies Christ's death, which bore punishment without guilt; those conformed to it in baptism are healed of sin and death, which implies that infants too have been poisoned by sin.
62. 1.62John 3:16–21 shows that baptized infants belong among believers who are not judged, while the unbaptized are among those already judged; regeneration comes only through Christ.
63. 1.63The rite of infant baptism, with its exorcism, renunciation of the devil, and profession of belief in the forgiveness of sins, would be a deception if infants had no sin; some opponents now admit infants are forgiven, but only for sins after birth.
64. 1.64Those who say infants have no sin and those who say they sin after birth are each partly right; combining their true claims leaves only original sin to be forgiven in infant baptism.
65. 1.65The obvious weakness and ignorance of infants proves without argument that they have committed no sin by their own will.
66. 1.66Infants' crying and striking their mothers come from ignorance, not sin, and adults foolishly delight in such behavior; the real question is the deep ignorance of the newborn.
67. 1.67The deep ignorance of the newborn rational soul cannot come from sins committed after birth, and Adam was not created so; ignorance is itself an evil needing cleansing.
68. 1.68Adam was created with mature reason, we are born weak because of his sin, and Christ took our weakness in the likeness of sinful flesh; infants' bodily helplessness itself may be penal.
69. 1.69Unlike young animals, human infants are wholly helpless, a bodily weakness matching the weakness of mind that belongs to the flesh of sin; Augustine leaves open the origin of the soul.
70. 1.70Baptism removes the guilt of concupiscence, not concupiscence itself, which remains for the baptized to fight; the question whether anyone lives without sin is left for the next book.
71. 2.1Augustine recalls the argument of Book 1 on infant baptism and announces the subject of Book 2: whether anyone lives without sin in this life.
72. 2.2Some so trust free choice that they deny we need God's help not to sin, which would make the petition “Do not bring us into temptation” pointless.
73. 2.3Although we do not sin unless we will it, God foresaw that we would not use our full strength of will, and so gave works of mercy as remedies for sins after baptism.
74. 2.4Concupiscence remains after baptism without guilt, harming only those who consent to it; the Lord's Prayer asks forgiveness for past consent, help against present temptation, and final deliverance from concupiscence.
75. 2.5God does not help us sin but helps us do good and even to turn to him, so that every command of his becomes a prayer: “Give what you command.”
76. 2.6Even the Pharisee thanked God for his righteousness; those who think righteousness comes from themselves are worse, though our will must also strive, since God helps only those who make an effort, in ways known to him alone.
77. 2.7Augustine divides the question into four and answers the first: by God's grace and free choice, itself God's gift, a man can be without sin in this life.
78. 2.8Augustine answers the second question: no one in fact lives without sin, since Scripture says no one is justified before God and the saints themselves confess their sins.
79. 2.9“He who is born of God does not sin” does not prove sinlessness: baptism forgives all sins, but renewal is gradual, so the baptized are children of God in so far as renewed and children of this world in so far as still old.
80. 2.10Believers are children of God in part and children of the world in part, so both statements of 1 John hold: the one born of God does not sin, and whoever claims to have no sin deceives himself.
81. 2.11A righteous parent does not beget a righteous child, since he begets by the flesh, not by the Spirit; every child needs spiritual rebirth.
82. 2.12The two statements of 1 John apply to different parts of the same person; even Noah, Daniel, and Job, the most righteous men of Scripture, were not without sin, as Noah's drunkenness shows.
83. 2.13Daniel confessed “my sins and the sins of my people,” refuting the claim that saints pray “forgive us” only on behalf of others.
84. 2.14Despite God's praise of him, Job confessed his sins and said that no one is righteous before God, measuring himself by God's perfect rule of righteousness.
85. 2.15Job's words show that man is born under wrath through original sin, is unclean even if he lives one day, and is accountable even for sins done under pressure or unwillingly.
86. 2.16Though Scripture says Job did not sin with his lips, God later rebuked him; seeing Christ's sinless righteousness, Job despised himself, as Paul counted his own legal righteousness as dung.
87. 2.17God's praise of Job as blameless and righteous does not mean he was sinless; it could be said also of the man of Romans 7, who still needs deliverance by grace.
88. 2.18There are truly righteous people on earth, but none is without sin, and all need the Lord's Prayer.
89. 2.19Zechariah, though righteous, belonged to the priesthood that had to offer sacrifice for its own sins; only Christ, the sinless high priest, did not.
90. 2.20Zechariah and Elizabeth were blameless in the law as Paul had been, yet Paul counted that righteousness loss and confessed that even as an apostle he was not yet perfect but still pressing on.
91. 2.21All the righteous praised in Scripture and since are truly great but not without sin, and each of them needs the Lord's Prayer.
92. 2.22The command “Be perfect” shows that sinlessness is possible, not that anyone achieves it; Scripture calls people perfect in some respect or for their great progress, not as wholly sinless.
93. 2.23God commands perfect sinlessness though he foreknows no one will fulfil it, as he commanded Adam and Eve; he justly condemns those who despise his commands and mercifully cleanses those who progress and forgive others.
94. 2.24Paul's “I have finished the course” was spoken in hope before his martyrdom; his thorn in the flesh, left to keep him humble, shows that even he was not free from all sin.
95. 2.25Even Moses, Aaron, and Samuel were corrected by God for sin; only Christ was scourged without sin; and even Augustine's upright opponents do not claim to be sinless.
96. 2.26To the third question, why no one is sinless though it is possible, Augustine answers: because people do not will it, through ignorance or lack of delight in the good, which only grace can remedy.
97. 2.27Pride is the cause of all human vices; its remedy is the humility of God in Christ, whose union with the Word came from grace, not merit, teaching us that knowing and delighting in good are God's gifts.
98. 2.28Augustine can find no good in our will that does not come from God, and warns against defending grace in a way that abolishes free choice, or free choice in a way that denies grace.
99. 2.29Augustine rejects the argument that good will is God's only because God made the man who has it, since the same reasoning would make God the author of bad will.
100. 2.30Free choice is a natural good that can be misused, but good will itself, which loves righteousness, comes only from God; otherwise what is ours would be better than what is his.
101. 2.31Turning away from God is ours, turning to him is God's gift; that he gives it to some is mercy, that he withholds it from others is truth, the two joined throughout Scripture.
102. 2.32Why God turns some and punishes others lies in his hidden justice; he sometimes withholds knowledge or delight in good even from saints, so they may know these come from him.
103. 2.33Grace opens what was hidden and makes the good delightful; pride and its penal consequence make obedience hard, and God heals even saints slowly so that they remain humble and give him thanks.
104. 2.34To the fourth question Augustine answers that no one but Christ has ever been, or will be, wholly without sin from birth, as the case of infants shows.
105. 2.35Adam and Eve ate of the tree of life, which kept them from aging and signified wisdom; the forbidden tree was not evil, and their punishment came only from violated obedience.
106. 2.36Before the fall the body obeyed the soul as the soul obeyed God; after disobedience, the flesh became disobedient in sexual desire, which caused shame, the penalty of sin called “the opening of the eyes.”
107. 2.37The law of concupiscence passed from Adam and Eve to their descendants like toil and the pains of childbirth; those reborn in Christ are given power to resist it and crucify the flesh.
108. 2.38The Word became flesh so that those born of flesh might be born of God; Christ, born in the likeness of sinful flesh of a virgin without concupiscence, never had sin, yet was baptized as an example, so sinful flesh needs baptism all the more.
109. 2.39A child of baptized parents is not baptized in their loins; Levi's being tithed in Abraham did not exempt his brothers from tithes, but his priesthood made him receive rather than pay them.
110. 2.40Circumcision, though given only once, was given to each child of circumcised parents; likewise the children of the baptized must themselves be baptized.
111. 2.41Those who cite 1 Corinthians 7:14 to argue against baptizing believers' children fall into contradiction: if holiness is inherited, so is sin, and on their own view holy and unclean children fare alike.
112. 2.42There are several kinds of sanctification, like that of catechumens or of food; the holiness Paul ascribes to believers' children, like that of unbelieving spouses, does not replace baptism.
113. 2.43No one can be reborn before being born, so children of the baptized must themselves receive the sacrament of regeneration, which frees infants from the serpent's bite received in Adam.
114. 2.44Converted parents beget from the remnants of their old nature, so their children need rebirth; baptism fully forgives sins but renews the person only gradually.
115. 2.45After baptism concupiscence remains, forgiven and defeated unless revived by consent; believing spouses use it well in marriage, but their children, born from it, still need rebirth.
116. 2.46As the guilt of past sins remains until forgiven, so the guilt of concupiscence, which itself remains, is removed by baptism.
117. 2.47Christ, the only sinless one, has in every age saved those predestined, through one faith in his birth, death, and resurrection, whether future, present, or past, though the sacraments of that faith have varied.
118. 2.48Jesus, whose name means Savior, saves infants as well as adults; though he took the likeness of sinful flesh and passed through infancy, he did not share infants' ignorance and went freely to a death he did not owe.
119. 2.49Adam's sin brought bodily death to all, but Christ's redemption brings resurrection to eternal life, so his benefit outweighs Adam's harm even though believers still die.
120. 2.50God lets believers die so that faith may be real faith in unseen things, not a desire to escape death; only those alive at Christ's return will be changed without dying.
121. 2.51Christ died without sin to destroy the devil, who has the power of death through sin, and believers' victory over the fear of death belongs to the contest of faith.
122. 2.52Christ ascended and withheld immortality from believers' bodies so that they might live by faith in what is unseen; this is the righteousness of which the Spirit convicts the world.
123. 2.53Death remains after forgiveness for the contest of faith, just as toil and the pains of childbirth, penalties for the first sin, remain for believers.
124. 2.54Death, the penalty of sin, remains after forgiveness as a contest; overcoming the fear of death is the great virtue of faith shown in the martyrs.
125. 2.55Adam and Eve, though afterwards righteous and believed saved by Christ's blood, were not restored to paradise; likewise the forgiven still suffer the death inherited through sin.
126. 2.56David's sin was forgiven, yet the threatened punishment through his son followed to exercise his piety; so bodily death remains after forgiveness.
127. 2.57Only Christ was without sin; believers must swerve neither to the right, by claiming sinlessness, nor to the left, by careless sinning, like the Israelites of twenty years who entered the promised land.
128. 2.58Opponents who admit infants need redemption have in effect granted that they need forgiveness, since all flesh descends from Adam's flesh of sin except Christ's likeness of it.
129. 2.59Augustine leaves open whether the soul is inherited with its guilt or created and burdened by union with sinful flesh, saying that where Scripture is unclear, inquiry should be cautious, and closes the book.
130. 3.1Augustine explains that after finishing two books he read Pelagius's brief expositions of Paul and found an argument against original sin that he answers in this letter.
131. 3.2Augustine turns the argument around: if Christ's righteousness benefits only believers and it benefits baptized infants, they must be counted believers through others, just as they are sinners through others' flesh.
132. 3.3If baptized infants are believers, unbaptized infants are unbelievers, under God's wrath, judged and condemned, which would be unjust if they had no original sin.
133. 3.4Augustine says he has already answered the other arguments against original sin in his first two books.
134. 3.5Augustine notes that Pelagius presented these arguments as others' views, and quotes the further arguments: children of the baptized, the origin of the soul, and the imputation of another's sin.
135. 3.6Pelagius, perhaps out of shame or caution, put these views in others' mouths; Augustine hopes he does not hold them, since they imply that sinless infants are condemned or have eternal life outside God's kingdom.
136. 3.7Scripture plainly teaches that no one is saved apart from Christ and no one is unjustly condemned; since unbaptized infants are not in Christ's body, they must bear original sin.
137. 3.8Even if Romans 5:12 were ambiguous, other clear texts show that infants need baptism for salvation, so Paul's words should be read in agreement with them.
138. 3.9In Romans 5 only “Adam, a type of the one to come” admits various readings; the rest can only mean what the church has always held, that baptized infants receive forgiveness of original sin.
139. 3.10Augustine cites Cyprian's letter to Fidus, where a council decided infants may be baptized before the eighth day, and Cyprian says that infants, though innocent of personal sin, contract Adam's contagion and receive forgiveness of another's sins.
140. 3.11Cyprian's council treated original sin as certain and debated only the day of baptism, deciding infants could be baptized at any time, since circumcision on the eighth day foreshadowed Christ's resurrection.
141. 3.12Jerome, in his commentary on Jonah, takes original sin as certain, and Augustine knows of no earlier Christian, catholic or not, who denied it; the new view he first heard casually at Carthage is now defended in writing.
142. 3.13Even Jovinian, who denied the superior merit of virginity, never denied original sin, and Jerome, refuting him, used original sin as a certain premise.
143. 3.14The church has always held original sin, and Scripture teaches it plainly; the sin is called “another's” only because all were contained in Adam before living their own lives.
144. 3.15God does not impute another's sin: inherited sin becomes the person's own by carnal generation until forgiven by spiritual regeneration.
145. 3.16The objection that children of the baptized should be born free of sin is answered by analogy: the circumcised beget uncircumcised sons, and winnowed wheat grows grain with chaff.
146. 3.17Since the opponents admit that Christians beget children who must be made Christians, they should admit that the cleansed beget children who must be cleansed; it is rebirth, not birth, that makes Christians and removes sin.
147. 3.18If souls are newly created, it is as hard to explain why innocent infant souls suffer pain and demonic assaults as why they incur original sin; Augustine leaves the question of the soul's origin open.
148. 3.19Romans 5:12 must be read in agreement with the many texts requiring union with Christ for salvation, and in the same sense as 1 Corinthians 15:21–22 on bodily death.
149. 3.201 Corinthians 15:53–57 shows that sin is the sting by which bodily death came; at the resurrection death will be swallowed up and sin, its sting, overcome through Christ.
150. 3.21Original sin is inherited as death is; whatever holiness Paul means in 1 Corinthians 7:14, it does not replace baptism for unbelieving spouses or for the children of believers.
151. 3.22The new teaching implicitly makes infant baptism pointless; infants denied Christ's grace are more destitute than orphans, and must be defended.
152. 3.23Sinlessness is to be desired, sought, and prayed for, but no one should believe it achieved; all need the Lord's Prayer, and God leaves death and some weakness to keep the righteous humble.